A Look Back to 1990: Disney and Henson

[Phillip]

With the recent rumblings of a possible Disney and Henson merger the past few weeks. We thought it was a good time to showcase this interview with Jim Henson on the set of Disney's lot the last few months of his life. It goes into detail about the original merger and what it would have meant to both parties. Special thanks to Jamie who contributed this article.

http://www.muppetcentral.com/articles/archives/1990_mouse_frog.shtml

 

[BoyRaisin2]

Thank You FrogBoy

YEEEES! FINALLY, after all my years of searching (sorta), I got to see this article.

Interesting, the SS Muppets were owned between JIM HENSON and CTW. It all makes sense now, unless I misinterpreted it.

And the picture on the front of the page of Mickey and Kermit (my new desktop wallpaper). You better keep this picture somewhere on the site. If there's another D-H article/press release, put the picture in it so it won't be eternally lost.

BTW, that IS "The Muppets at Walt Disney World" right? It looks like Jim's Kermit and I do remember the office where he was talking to Mickey. And by looking at Mickey's clothes, that has to be the early 1990's. I used to have a poster with him in those clothes.

Wow, awesome awesome awesome. If only I had ink for my printer.

OK, my pants are soaked, now I'm done.

 

[Phillip]

We are glad you liked the article. Yes, the pic of the front of the site is from the May 1990 special "The Muppets at Walt Disney World".

 

[radionate]

What a great article, and an insight to what might have been.

Thanks for taking the time to retype that up Jamie!

 

[frogboy4]

It was a chore. LOL! But I found it such a different look at the Disney/Henson merger than is usually seen. Jim seemed really excited about Disney ownership. Thing have certainly changed now, but it's interesting to remember how it all started.

 

[BoyRaisin2]

This will go under "Interviews" or something when it comes off the main page right? Should've known some Disney-Henson picture would come when the Fred Rogers one went away.

Wow, and I still find it interesting that SS was between Jim and CTW. And it looked like, even at that time, Jim was still planning some "non-Muppet, creature-oriented" projects, which was awesome.

Sorta (or really) makes you wonder where Jim Henson Productions would be today if all just went according to plan.

 

[Chilly Down]

"Mickey is happy. Kermit is happy. Miss Piggy is happy. And Jim Henson appears to be pretty happy about the deal too."

Oh man, oh man, oh man. If only things had kept going in the direction they were going. This makes me miss what might have been SO MUCH!

Thanks for typing up the article, though, Jamie. I've been wanting to get my hands on that for a long time.

Of course things will be different now, but it's interesting to hear just how pro-Disney that Henson was. He really didn't want the characters ANYWHERE else. He really wanted the characters to have a big presence at the theme parks. Let's hope some of those plans get back off the ground again.

Since we're concerned that the Disney buyout means that people will be let go, I find it interesting that Jim understood this as a necessity and had already pared down the company at that time. I don't mean to be cavalier about anyone losing their jobs; I'm just saying Jim's decision has given me a slightly different perspective. He wanted his company just to be creative, to just be putting out lots of product. In an ideal world, this will happen when the buyout is complete.

Jim had OTHER fantasy/Creature movies in mind? Oh, man. We'll never know what they were now.

If Jim had been able to get the next Muppet movie off the ground sooner, in the time frame he mentioned, it would have featured Richard still at that point.

I don't even mind the mention of the Muppet animated movies. With Jim watching over it to insure quality, it could be an interesting, fun "slightly different take" on the Muppets. And with the animators of Disney's second Golden Age behind it (even with the TV animators of that time, for that matter, who were pretty good)...wow. Now, of course, we have to worry about Disney buying the characters and putting out cheap animated direct-to-video stuff without any of the creative personnel (including puppeteers) involved. That's not extremely likely, but it's not impossible either.

Jim was so excited about CGI, years ahead of his time. If he was still around, he would have produced the first "Toy Story" (that is, an equivalent). As it is, they're just now perfecting the Performance Control System he talked about then.

Wow. This was a fabulous article that made me as happy as it made me sad, to think about what might have been. Thanks for posting it, Phil.

 

[frogboy4]

I also found the animatikon portion intriguing. Henson began with the low-scale Muppet Babies project, but in the hands of Disney, they could have done interesting things.

 

[Luke]

Great article, and great work typing that up Jamie ! It's interesting to see how pumped up Jim was about the merger as it was back then, which obviously would be completely different if it happened now. I wonder how it would have turned out - whether it would have lived upto Jim Henson's expectations ?

There's some interesting stuff in there - Jim's comment that they'd had feelers with Disney in the past but he hadn't been interested. In Bernie Brillsteins book he says Jim went to Disney asking for a merger a year or two earlier and they turned him down flat at the time because the Muppets weren't 'hot' enough - then when things built up a little this merger deal we are hearing about now happened. Maybe Jim 'forgot' that - wouldn't have been very good for Henson/Disney relations at that time i guess.

Also about the licensing, publishing and admin being taken over by Disney and most of the staff being absorbed into there. It would probably have been great now but if the plan is the same this time around not sure people are going to be so happy - JHC has discovered it's independance a lot more since then and also the licensing changes especially will lead to lots of visible changes for the kind of things we see coming from the brand and what the fans are used to buying at the moment - i guess lots more mass-produced Disneyfied items and less of the high quality collectables from 'niche' licensee's.

Anyway it'll be interesting to see how it all turns out - we don't know what Disney's plan is this time around - if it happens - and i tend to think it could all work out a number of different ways, both good and not so good.

 

[foofoocakes]

Ok, This is me raining on the parade. When Jim was alive he had creative control of the muppets. If Disney buys them now THEY would have creative control. Scary if you ask me. Also you notice that Jim was only using the studio space and voiced concern over things being too driven by the commecial aspect and merchandise sales . Am I the only one who hears alarm bells about the creative aspects of the muppets with this merger?
This may be the only way for the muppets to come back but I don't think It will be good for them in the long run.